You might call this the kickoff for my new calling as Provident Living Leader. As presented to me, it is to help the ward with preparedness in any way I can! It’s so all-encompassing that it’s hard to know where to start. As church members, we believe in following the prophets in being prepared and self sufficient for the unstable future. We work at it. We store food and water. Many dedicated leaders have helped us with this through the years. However, you might feel as I do that your storage is not complete or sufficiently balanced. And storage is just one angle of preparedness! So I have been studying to form a plan of how to lead out with this. It’s not complete either, but let’s dive in together!
This journey will be in the form of encouragement and invitations. It is apparent that there are MANY things we could be purchasing for sustenance and comfort. I’ll try to find upcoming deals on specific items. If you have knowledge of special offers (with no personal gain, or that do not compete directly with local businesses) let me know. Also, tell me of any areas of special concern. With that said, the spirit has led me to feel the need to start with finances.
Pay Thy Debt And Live. The June Ensign has wonderful articles on family finances and stretching our money. Please read these articles carefully. Debt makes one totally vulnerable to the tides of the future. If we had been told just a few years ago that banks would go bankrupt, major industries would fail, and economies would crumble, we would have wondered how that could happen. Today we don’t even need to ask how that scenario could happen. We are seeing it unfold before our eyes. Hopefully things will stabilize and we’ll have more time to heed the words of our prophet. But we can see that the day of procrastination is over.
Our grandparents lived through the depression. They understood the value of a dollar and the desperation of wondering how they would make it. Even when the depression ended, they lived frugally. It is a blessing to any of us who have been connected to that generation. That mentality has eroded over the years and even swung to the opposite end of the pendulum. To some, expenditures are not even measured against income. Certainly there are total victims to economic disaster despite hard work and preparation. Life brings ups and downs financially even while trying to be careful. It is a constant assessment of tightening the belt or planning for a meaningful purchase. On the other hand, many people have dug a very deep hole for themselves by overextending and entitlement. It is a curse of our day. To a large extent, people are in debt or out of debt because they have chosen to be. I know people that are deeply concerned about their personal debt, yet it seems to have no reflection on how they live their daily lives. They see many luxuries as necessities. Luxuries are anything one can do without such as theatres, eating out, prepared food, vacations, manicures, hobbies, new clothes, electronic gadgets, even nickle and dime items. Families with debt are encouraged to discuss it among themselves and make a plan to get out of debt as soon as possible. It will take sacrifice. It should not be comfortable. Freedom from debt usually means living a different lifestyle than accustomed to.
A financial guru put it bluntly in speaking to youth. “This (economic crisis) is the greatest thing that has ever happened to youth. It gave you a wake-up call that your parents were living in financial la-la land. They were just trying to impress everybody with money they didn’t have. Your parents and grandparents were trying to keep up with the Joneses without having a clue that the Joneses had $50,000 in credit card debt...Our problems aren’t that we aren’t spending money. Our problems were that we were spending money that we never had.” Suzie Orman
She can see the need for financial responsibility without knowing the bigger picture the gospel offers us. How much more reason do we have? Living within our means is a principle of the gospel that effects our spirituality more than we know. It always starts with paying tithing. Please join me in assessing the value of the places we put our money into. Vicki
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